Review of the Eszee Twist Tool by Camaj Fiber Arts

I recently received an Eszee Twist Tool from Mary at Camaj Fiber Arts to test and review.

From the Camaj Fiber Arts website regarding the Eszee Twist tool:

The Eszee Twist Tool is a new product developed to help spinners make a balanced yarn every time. Not only is it a necessary tool for anyone beginning te craft of hand spinning yarn, it is a useful tool for experienced spinners as it provides a handy reference and gauge system that is easily portable and self-contained.

Have you ever spun a yarn with a specific pattern in mind only to find the yarn is not the right wpi for the pattern? Well, the handy dandy yarn thickness gauge will help avoid that issue.

Want to spin a yarn for weaving and not sure how large the angle of twist should be in the yarn? The easy to use angle of twist gauge will help you spin the yarn perfect for your weaving projects.

The kit comes with a plastic card that is a multi-function tool that functions as a yarn thickness guide, a WPI gauge, an angle of twist gauge and a guide to determine if the yarn was spun in the S or Z direction.

It also includes a full color 24-page manual and yarn planner, a magnifier that enables better yarn identification and a strudy zipper pouch that not only holds the kit but any other small goodies spinners need to carry, like a diz or orifice hook.

The Yarn Planner is an easy to use, step-by-step guide to assist you in spinning perfectly balanced yarns every time.

The Eszee Twist Tool will quickly become the most indispensable item in any spinning arsenal.

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I've been spinning for almost 15 years and still found much of the information to be useful. I have yet to figure out how the Angle of Twist Gauge works but maybe I just need to spend a little more time working on that part of the kit.

I think this Eszee Twist Tool will be a very valuable addition to a new spinner's arsenal.

You can buy your Eszee Twist Tool here: Eszee Twist Tool from Camaj Fiber Arts

Split Rock Ranch Fall Spin Along - Cornucopia

Above is a collage of the finished skeins of yarn from the very first Split Rock Ranch Spin Along. There are two Navajo plied yarns, one singles and one two-ply yarn. I love how these turned out! Great job from the spinners who participated! And check out Lisa's finished scarf crocheted from her yarn! What a fabulous way to use the yarn Lisa!

Chocolate Cherry Delight Yarn - DONE!

I finished spinning the Chocolate Cherry Delight merino/bamboo fiber blend batt into yarn. I ended up with 260 yards of a DK weight two-ply. It is really soft and squishy!

What's on the Spinning Wheel - Finished Yarns

I've had several custom spinning orders lately so I've been pretty busy at the spinning wheel. I love to record my favorite shows and then watch them while I spin and fast forward through the commercials. It really saves time when watching TV shows and gives me something to do while I spin.

First up is a 50/50 Superwash Merino/Tencel roving in my India Spices colorway spun two-ply into a DK weight yarn.

Here is the roving.

And here is the finished yarn. I love how this turned out!

The next custom spinning job was to spin 4 ounces of my Treasure Chest custom fiber blend batts (romney wool, yearling mohair and tussah silk). I ended up with over 300 yards of sport weight yarn and I love the luster and drape to this!

Here are the batts before spinning

And here is the finished yarn

And now on the wheel is Chocolate Cherry Delight - a mixture of milk chocolate merino and cherry bamboo.

Next up is a custom dye order in my Fall Leaves colorway on Polwarth roving. Then I'll spin 8 ounces of it up into a two-ply yarn and 4 ounces into a navajo-plied yarn.

What are you creating?

What's on the Spinning Wheel

Before I show you what's on the wheel right now, I want to show you how the Tuscany custom yarn turned out. I was amazed at the yardage I managed to get out of this roving! I ended up with a 3.8 ounce skein with 403 yards of yarn! I had a bit left on the second bobbin that I Navajo-plied (basically you ply the yarn back on itself) and ended up with 0.3 ounces and 32 yards. The customer wanted 400 - 450 yards of a heavy fingering weight yarn and I dyed up just over 4 ounces in the hopes I would be able to spin that into the required yardage. I love it when a plan works out! The customer was thrilled with the finished yarn and it shipped out on Friday.

And on the spinning wheel now is a merino/tencel roving that I dyed up in a colorway that I called "India Spices" - deep orange, aztec gold, brown and burgundy. It is spinning up nice and thin and is looking incredibly rich. I'll post pics of the yarn when I have it done. I am spinning this up for a friend who loves to crochet and she fell in love with this colorway. The finished yarn should have incredible drape and luster to it.

On the Wheel, Kitten Update, Etc.

We're still staying busy here at the ranch but I wanted to share some updates with you.

First, the foster kittens went back to the shelter on Monday. It was very difficult for us to say goodbye to these gorgeous kittens. Jellybean was the most difficult to let go this time. She has adjusted well to life in the shelter, although the little feral kittens were terrified of their new home. They were spayed and neutered yesterday and I'm hoping they find their new furever homes soon.

Uncle Munchkin was extremely upset that I took his babies away. He came into my office and peed on my chair and then spent hours roaming the house calling for the kittens. I promised him that I would get more kittens for him to care for soon - but he's still mad! Here's a photo I snapped of Munchkin and three of the kittens lounging on the bags of fiber in the bathtub. That's Barbie tucked under Munchkin, Kenny with his head over Munchkin's leg and Jellybean lounging in her favorite sunny side up position behind. Krissy was in the cube on the floor snoozing at the time.

I am in the middle of a custom dye/spinning order right now. I'm spinning up superwash BFL into sock yarn. I have finished spinning the first bobbin - half of a 4 ounce braid - and will get started on the second half hopefully today. If I can get 400 to 450 yards out of these 4 ounces I'll be done with the job but if not, I'll have to dye up another 2 ounces to get the required yardage for the customer. This colorway is called "Tuscany". I love the rich earthy colors in it!

Here is one 2 ounce braid along with the other braid stripped and ready for spinning.

And here is half of the first bobbin on the wheel

I have been AWOL - Sorry!

I am so sorry that I haven't posted anything in almost two weeks! It has been so crazy busy here lately that I just haven't had the time or energy to put up a new post and some days I haven't even been able to get through all my emails.

This is going to be a hodge-podge post of what is on my spinning wheel and what is next in the spinning queue, llamas, foster kittens, etc.

Here is what is on my spinning wheel right now - Zinnias colorway on merino roving by Spinningawesomegood on Etsy. I split the roving into thinner strips and separated those strips into approximately equal weight halves that I will spin on two bobbins and then ply together to allow the bright colors to fall where they may - it should be a vibrant yarn!

Next up is a custom dyed superwash BFL roving that I dyed for a customer who wants to make socks out of the finished yarn. I don't have any photos of the colorway but it is in shades of Burgundy, Russet, Gold Ochre and Olive. It will be spun onto two bobbins and plyed to allow the colors to fall where they may and blend together throughout the length of yarn.

Then I have a custom order to spin the following roving - a merino/tencel roving that I dyed in my India Spices colorway. This yarn should have incredible drape and luster to it!

We have sheared a few more llamas in the past couple of weeks but our schedule has not allowed us to shear as many as we would have liked and we are quickly running out of time to get them sheared. I don't like to shear any later than mid-July because we start getting snow early (last year we got our first snow on the last day of summer) and we can get snow into May so I want to be sure that the llamas have enough fiber growth before the cold weather and snow hits.

We sold another llama this past weekend. This is Midnight's Amazing Grace - these photos are from when she was a yearling and she has grown a LOT but I don't have more recent photos to share. We sheared her for her new owners so she will be nice and cool at her new home. She has been reunited with her mother and one of her sisters at her new home so she is very happy where she is at now.

And I can't resist sharing a photo of Grace when she was a cria - sorry but her momma's behind is in the photo, not her best side!

And, no, that isn't dirt on Grace, she had gray on her face, legs and down the center of her back when she was young!

The foster kittens are growing like crazy and are slowly getting better adjusted to being around people and the dogs and other cats. They should be ready to be spayed and neutered within the next couple of weeks and ready for adoption to their new furever homes. Jellybean has been dubbed "dangerously cute" by our daughter, who has nicknamed Jellybean "The Geiger Tiger" because she purrs constantly!

Uncle Munchkin with Barbie, Kenny and Jellybean. Krissy was sleeping in the cube instead of in the tub with the rest of the crew. They love sleeping on the bags of wool!

So, that's some of what we've been up to lately. How is everyone else's summer going?!

New Handspun Yarns

I've been busy spinning lately and finished up three skeins of yarn.

First up is a merino/bambo/silk 50/25/25 roving handdyed by Coby Kopec of CJ Kopec Creations in her White Cap colorway. This roving was a joy to spin - so soft and easy to spin thin - I ended up with a light DK weight 350 yard two-ply skein that weighs 3.7 ounces and then navajo-plied the remainder of the yarn into a 24 yard skein that weighs 0.3 ounces. This yarn is incredibly soft with amazing drape and luster. White Caps is available in my Etsy store.

Here's the roving before spinning

And here are the finished yarns

And here is the second set of yarns. I spun up a beautiful batt called Peacock created by Esther at Jazz Turtle Creations on Etsy. The batt contained: merino, milk protein, bamboo rayon, kid mohair locks, border leicester locks, glitterati, sari silk tangles, angelina and are plied with a cotton yarn/thread in coordinating colors.

Here is the batt before spinning

I spun this one thick and thin and plied it with a cotton yarn/thread in coordinating colors. I had so much yarn that it wouldn't all fit on the bobbin so I had to make two skeins of Peacock yarn. The first skein is 89 yards and 3.3 ounces. The second skein is 85 yards and 2.4 ounces. Both are worsted weight yarns. The second skein is a bit thinner than the first one. Peacock and Peacock II can both be found in my Etsy store.

Another Productive Day at the Carder!

Yesterday I carded up several more Custom Fiber Blend batts to list in our Etsy store. I recently sorted through a ton of boxes and bags of fiber that I had stashed in our soaking tub in the master bath (I know it sounds crazy but the tub is freaking ginormous and the water heater runs out of hot water when the tub is only half full so what's the point?) Anyway, I sorted out fibers that will work well blended together and filled a huge plastic bin with bags of blending fibers. Yesterday I had a blast going through that bin and picking out all kinds of fibers that went well together. Following are three of the batts: The top one is Lilacs, the middle one is Hydrangeas and the bottom one is Bahama Bay

I also made this - Glacier Bay - a blend of custom dyed merino/silk, tussah silk, mohair and bamboo. This reminds me of the colors of a glacier with that eerie seafoam green glow under the white snow and ice.

And while we're on the subject of snow and ice - guess what we got (yet again) last night?!

Yep, more snow! They predicted that snow would start Tuesday night and go into Wednesday but all we got Tuesday night was a fireworks show complete with tons of lightning and thunder but not a drop of moisture. Then yesterday evening I looked out the office window and it was snowing like crazy so I grabbed my handy camera and snapped several shots. Can you see the thermometer on the deck railing? I think it says about 30 degrees F. And it is mid-May. Ahhh, Springtime in the Rockies - you gotta love it! Not really...

I have a ton of flowers I need to get planted but I obviously don't dare put them out just yet. I have Hollyhocks, Columbine, Lupine, Hosta, Iris and Pansies. I uncovered the rose bushes and I think they made it through the winter but there is no new growth on them yet. It appears that the raspberry bush didn't make it through the winter but the lilac bush I planted last Fall is showing new sprouts so I mulched that day before yesterday with an old llama fleece to keep the buds from getting frostbit. The catnip plant is coming up - I already cut that back to the ground last week and I'm hoping it doesn't get frostbit either, except I think it has a much better chance of coming back than most of the other plants since its pretty hardy. I am going to go buy several straw bales and put them together out in the front flower garden where I can't seem to get things to grow very well and I'll fill in the "straw container" with composted llama manure and try making a raised bed this year. I used to garden a lot at our old house in Colorado Springs. We turned most of the front yard into a terraced flower garden and we had people stopping all the time to take pictures of it. It was a real show stopper! The decomposed granite soils, the short growing season (i.e., two whole days of real summer) and the hungry deer make gardening extremely challenging here but I'm struggling each year to get at least one more decent tree, bush, plant or garden area growing.

Back to the Grindstone...I Mean Drum Carder!

This week I dove into my enormous stash of custom dyed fibers and created three new Custom Fiber Blend batts. The first one I made is a recreation of a similar set of batts I created a year ago using some of the same fibers and adding additional fibers.

First up is Butterfly Garden. Blue/greens, golds and rosy pinks carded up in stripes. Very soft custom dyed BFL wool along with uber soft custom dyed tussah silk, mohair top and kid mohair locks with a generous dollop of Angelina to add sparkle and bling to the mix.

Next I carded up some custom dyed merino top with some commercially dyed multi-color merino top and added some custom dyed mohair and tussah silk then added a generous helping of Firestar and Angelina in a variety of rich earthy colors to really spice things up. This first batt I carded up in stripes similar to Butterfly Garden. This one is Canyonlands (stripes).

And finally, because I love these colors sooo much and because I had plenty of fibers, I decided to do Canyonlands again using the same fibers only I used a layered technique of applying the fibers to the drum carder, resulting in a more blended version. This is Canyonlands (layered).

I think I need to make another set of Canyonlands for myself to spin up. I love these colors!

No Kittens = Time to Play with Fiber!

With the kittens gone this week I got busy carding up all kinds of fiber blend batts on Tuesday. I recently sorted through my enormous stash of fibers and put them into boxes and bags by colors and it was really easy to sort through and pick out what I wanted to blend this time.

I'm just going to post pics of the batts and a link to the Custom Fiber Blend batt section in my Etsy store so you can go there for more information if you're interested in them.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

More Spinning and More Yarn

I participated in a Spin Along on Ravelry from Boho Knitter Chic. The theme was Alice In Wonderland. My batt was based on "The Cheshire Cat" - in purples, rosy pink and creamy white. When I got the batt I decided to ply it with an organic cotton thread I had recently purchased specifically for the purpose of using for plying yarns or to use as the core thread on core spun yarns. The thread matched the batt perfectly. I don't have pics of the batt before spinning, sorry...I was too excited to get started and get it spun up!

Here's the finished yarn, which I called "Lush Lilacs" because it reminds me of the lilacs on the bushes that I used to pass as I walked up Cheyenne Canon to my grade school.

And on the wheel now, a merino and silk roving by Rogue Adventures in her Autumn in Oregon colorway.

I am spinning this nice and thin and will Navajo ply it to retain the color definition so it will look similar to Reggae on the River.

On the Needles and On the Spinning Wheel

Sorry it has been several days since my last post but I've been busy!

Here's what I have on my needles right now. It is a wool art yarn spun by Esther at JazzTurtle on Etsy - spring green, lavender and white plyed with a gold metallic thread with silk flowers attached at random places along the skein. I am making a long skinny scarf with this using large size 13 needles and a basic stitch of knit one row, purl one row and then I wrap a row every ten to twelve rows and drop that wrapped stitch in the next row to create a long stitch. I am not using a pattern, I'm just making it up as I go along. I'm still debating on fringe or no fringe - I'll see how long the scarf is when I get towards the end of the skein. If the scarf is long enough I'll do fringe. If it isn't I'll either not do fringe or use a different yarn to create the fringe. Here's the skein of yarn

And here is what's on the spinning wheel right now. This is a roving consisting of merino and tencel from CJ Kopec Creations on Etsy. This is for the March/April Spin Along on CJ's Ravelry group. It is coming out nice and thin so I will be able to Navajo ply it and still have it be a lighter weight yarn (I'm thinking sport to DK weight).  The colors are so rich and the luster of the yarn is incredible. I can't wait to finish this one up!

Spinning up a Storm!

I have been spinning up a storm this week! I just listed two new skeins of handspun yarn today in my Etsy store.

First up is the Reggae on the River BFL roving that I showed you yesterday.

First the roving

 

And the finished two-ply yarn

 

I may buy another one of these rovings in merino/silk or merino/bamboo so I can spin it even thinner and then Navajo 3-ply it which keeps the color runs cleaner. I think the colors were somewhat muted by doing a two-ply yarn and mixing the colors. Any thoughts on that?

And next a boucle yarn made from a fiber blend batt of BFL wool, silk, bamboo, glitz and angelina in greens, purples, turquoise/aqua and white plyed with purple and turquoise cotton thread. I love how this one turned out! It is so soft and poofy and fluffy.

Pansy